master6 wrote:...The purpose of this thread is simply to pander to my intrigue about touring...

No doubt you've learnt a lot already about cycletouring and touring bikes from posts to this thread and by talking to cycletourists you've seen on the road (my partner & I have also toured through your area on a trip up the east coast, a couple of years ago). Anyway, I thought I'd post this link from the site of the UK Cyclists' Touring Club that gives a brief sketch of what they consider constitutes a 'touring bike' with links to separate pieces on 'trekking bike' and 'expedition tourer'. http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3510 There's also a 12-page CTC information sheet in Word entitled "Get into Cycletouring" but it's only available to CTC members (i've been a member for 20 years). PM me if you'd like me to forward you a copy of that. Needless to say, there's plenty of other material on the internet on this subject.

I'll be arriving in Hobart later tomorrow for a sojurne up the east coast and departing from Devo' on 17th March. I'm riding an old and rusty Shogun with black ortilebs and my mate is on the shiny Trek with Yellow Ortilebs. Give a shout out or a toot as ya go by or stop me for a chat if the opportunities there.

Anyone from Launceston, Invermay? Twas born there and haven't been back for 30 yrs or so. Kindergarten and 1st year at Invermay PS ( 1967- 68?). I'm really excited to be going home after so long. As a kid I'd go out with relo's on the weekend following the road riders on their races and the Velodrome was another place to play.

Anyway, hope to say gidday to some locals and family too.041seven 678four11, I'll off this forum for much of the trip.Andy

A couple of years ago I rode from Perth to Geraldton after they opened the coastal road from Lancelin to Cervantes. Stayed a few days in Gero before getting a lift back with my brother in law.

As we headed in to midland on the great northern hwy we passed a old man fully loaded on a touring bike doing about 10km an hour. I thought I might catch up to him as I was being dropped off in Herne Hill. Just before Reid Hwy I did catch up to him.

He was 71. Blind in one eye. Riding a $400 hybrid. Wearing safety glasses from a road house. Leather skinned from a life time of sailing and this trip too, which took him from Darwin to Perth. It was his second attempt after going the opposite direction the year before and pulling up stumps in Port Hedland. He modified his bike to harness a 8 litre poly pipe long the top tube.

Happened to catch him on his final day and he was contemplating catching the train to Perth from Midland after a bad experience on Great Eastern Hwy 20 years earlier. Fear not, I said, I'll pilot you in to the city along the quiet roads and along the river. So through Guildford, Bassendean, Maylands and East Perth we rode. He was so happy to have a pilot, because he could switch off and not think. Was probably the busiest day in his entire trip, which took him 4 months to the day.

I have ridden from Perth to Melbourne, via Port Lincoln. And last year did 4000km around the UK. In late June I'll ride from Darwin to Perth, thanks to the inspiration of a young 71 yr old I ran in to one day.

J Quinton wrote: ... an old man fully loaded on a touring bike doing about 10km an hour ... He was 71.

I'm sure he saw more of the country than those who tour with black line syndrome ... and is 71 considered to be old nowadays? I'd better not ask if 10kph is considered slow ... I though that 10kph was quick.

Me settle down? I didn't submit the patronizing post about the elderly chap? Or it is you who is 7? ... otherwise, what you have just written in your last post is word salad ... and how did the 50 years old get involved? That one has come from way out of left field. Now you are making assumptions about 50 year olds being past it?

I think it is well past your bed time, sonny.

Warren.

"But on steep descending...Larson TT have bad effect on the mind of a rider" - MadRider from Suji, Korea 2001.

(1) A guy from Holland. He is riding a Schwinn World Traveller from Tasmania back to Holland. He had taken a break from riding at Cairns and was crewing on a sailing boat through to Darwin then on to Indonesia and Singapore where he intended to get back to riding, hoping to make it home around May next year. He had a few days off in Darwin so was riding Litchfield National Park.

(2) Meet two Italians and one Spanish guy from the same club at Adelaide River. They are riding road bikes pulling BOB style type of trailers (two of them) from Darwin to Adelaide. One of the bikes had 23 or 25 mm tyres on it ... didn't check the others out that closely. Had to communicate as my Italian/Spanish is non-existence and their English is much the same Moving quickly I suspect.

SWMBO and I elected to use one of our two free Victorian Seniors tickets for a day trip to Drouin on Monday. (I understand that NSW Seniors get a much better deal on free transport than us Mexicans!)

A bloke boarded at Flinders Street Railway (not "train") Station ( I dislike these Americanisms creeping into our language!) with a tourer with four panniers and a load on the rear rack. I said g'day and established that he was riding from wherever the train currently terminates through the hills to Canberra and on to Brisbane. had had some tourist maps but was undecided about his actual route. He lives in Cairns.

Driving south along the busy Pacific Hwy between Kempsey and Newcastle today I spotted 5 tourers. Three headed north and a family of four headed south. Made me wonder why, given the loathing many tourers including myself, have for that heavily trafficked national highway but maybe they were unaware of the interesting, quieter coastal side roads through that region. The family in particular were beating into a cross wind, mum on the back with a young fella sitting prone in front legs stretched out pedalling on a tandem similar to a Bilenky Viewpoint. Dad was towing a fully enclosed trailer.

Who is online

About the Australian Cycling Forums

The largest cycling discussion forum in Australia for all things bike; from new riders to seasoned bike nuts, the Australian Cycling Forums are a welcoming community where you can ask questions and talk about the type of bikes and cycling topics you like.